Seeing Indonesia's violence in Arendt's light<\/p>\n
By Harry Bhaskara<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The destruction of buildings by a mob in East
\nJava last week during huge rallies in support of beleaguered
\nPresident Abdurrahman Wahid is only the latest example of public
\nviolence, displayed consistently since the country was hit by a
\ncrisis four years ago.<\/p>\n
Other violence may be lighter in scale but continues unabated,
\nand this is not small in significance to the life of the people.
\nPeople turn violent at the slightest provocation, street brawls
\nare the rule rather than the exception, people have been robbed
\nat their homes and in side streets with violent attacks, trains
\nenroute are pelted with rocks and petty thieves are burned on the
\nspot.<\/p>\n
Why does violence continue to rule in this country?<\/p>\n
\"When politicians perceive politics as a source of earnings,
\nthe result will be fraud, greed and violence,\" said Haryatmoko, a
\nlecturer at Jakarta's Driyarkara Institute of Philosophy in a
\ndiscussion here over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The Jesuit priest based his statement on a book by the
\nprominent Jewish writer Hannah Arendt, who wrote Human Condition
\nin 1958.<\/p>\n
In its highest development, politicians would no longer look
\nat politics as a source of income nor as a mere tool to defeat
\ntheir enemies, but as a means to turn into practice the
\nprinciples of freedom, egalitarianism, justice and solidarity, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The discussion at Bentara Budaya in Central Jakarta on Feb. 9
\nfocused on Arendt's thoughts on political morals and was attended
\nby about 100 people, most of them students.<\/p>\n
Absent in Indonesia today, he said, was political ethics.
\n\"Whoever is in power would think they will be annihilated once
\ntheir opponents seize power. This is a proof that there is no
\npolitical ethics at all.\"<\/p>\n
Under the 32-year New Order repressive rule, he said, people
\nhad been reduced from human beings to commodities; they had not
\nbeen taught to think critically. Public dialog had been
\nsidelined.<\/p>\n
Politics, said Haryatmoko, \"could be practiced as an art\".<\/p>\n
Raising fuel prices, he said, could be done with persuasion
\nand dialog to make people understand why the government should
\ntake the decision.<\/p>\n
Karlina Leksono-Supelli, the speaker in the discussion,
\ncomplimented Haryatmoko's point.<\/p>\n
The military makes assessments of \"win\" and \"lose\" reports
\nprior to an operation, she said. What is shocking is that there
\nare two columns in such reports referred to as the \"win\" and the
\n\"lose\" columns.<\/p>\n
The \"win\" column refers to the number of people that would
\npossibly be killed in the operation and the \"lose\" column to the
\namount of equipment that would possibly be damaged.<\/p>\n
\"Here human beings are treated as mere figures,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Arendt refers to this phenomenon as \"thoughtless\" activities,
\nKarlina said, further asking why this was so widespread.<\/p>\n
\"When these people are brought to court, the answer will
\nalways be: \"I only executed an order,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Responding to whether political ethics could be upheld in a
\nsociety laden with a culture of violence, Karlina said people had
\nto start from themselves.<\/p>\n
\"But this will be hardly enough,\" she hastened to add.<\/p>\n
People tend to overlook the fact that words used in daily
\nconversation are the epitome of a culture of violence, Karlina
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"Look at the way we talk, look at our popular culture
\nreflected in television comedies (ketoprak); the words are full
\nof violent messages,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Another participant asked whether political ethics could
\novercome violence. From a Machiavellian angle, Haryatmoko
\nreplied, political ethics could not stop violent behavior because
\nmorals would not be an issue.<\/p>\n
Karlina said violence is often linked with the military, but
\ncivilians are no less familiar with it.<\/p>\n
\"The phrase 'you are different from me', is so inherent (in
\neveryone) and we are not aware of the fact that it is a form of
\nviolence,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She went so far as to say that grouping people according to
\ntheir racial or religious lines, such as Chinese-Indonesians,
\nindigenous Indonesians, Muslims or Christians, is a form of
\nviolence.<\/p>\n
Citing another book by Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A
\nReport on the Banality of Evil (1963), she said evil could come
\nfrom a civil servant working behind his desk. He does not need to
\nbe a monster.<\/p>\n
Eichmann, who was charged with killing six million Jews, was a
\nsound man whose only obsession was efficiency, Karlina said.<\/p>\n
In an answer to a question about how to stop violence,
\nHaryatmoko listed, among other things, the upholding of justice,
\nenabling self-expression since childhood, placing more priority
\non literature in the curriculum, doing away with the segregation
\nof schools along religious lines and the need to get rid of
\nhabits to settle disputes in \"familial\" ways.<\/p>\n
\"Impunity will give way to violence and violent action is
\nactually a mute communication par excellence,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Karlina said she once surveyed the textbooks of primary school
\nstudents, especially civics. Her impression, she said, was that
\nthe books prevented children from becoming autonomous
\nindividuals, making them alien to the idea of pluralism and
\nrender them incapable of solving conflicts.<\/p>\n
\"The result is the attitude of 'the generalizing of others',
\nlooking at others as no more than a mass of people (rather than
\nindividuals with personalities),\" she said.<\/p>\n
These individuals are prone to committing violent behavior,
\nshe said. \"What they should have learned is about how to convey
\ndifferences in words,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Another participant asked, is violence second nature to human
\nbeings? Violence is committed by all beings, Karlina said, when
\nthe need of self-defense arises.<\/p>\n
\"In the case of human beings, the difference is that we can
\nalways rethink our actions. Other beings cannot do so,\" she said.<\/p>\n
The writer is a journalist of The Jakarta Post.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/seeing-indonesias-violence-in-arendts-light-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }